Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,
The Fed has been sitting on the funds rate like some monetary mother hen since December 2008. Once it punts again at the June meeting owing to Brexit worries it will have effectively pegged money market rates at the zero bound for 90 straight months.
It is becoming increasingly clear there is a mainstream media cover up conspiracy about Prince’s death. We are being being fed half truths and outright lies, and the official version of events being reported by the media is implausible to say the least. We need to start asking some questions. It is the very least Prince deserves.
In an interesting interview with Finanz und Wirtschaft, Bianco Research president Jim Bianco discusses a variety of topics such as negative interest rates turning the entire credit process upside down, bank balance sheets being even more complex and concentrated than before the financial crisis, energy loans being an accident waiting to happen, the markets having veto power over the Fed, and gold having more room to run.
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In a recent interview, Bill Gross provided some further truthiness regarding the state of the U.S. economy and the unveiling of the Federal Reserve as the world's banker.
As we've said countless times, Gross reiterates in the interview that the Fed's only contribution to the real economy has been to help create more jobs that aren't adding up to any real economic growth (i.e. waiter and bartender jobs at minimum wage). He points out that U.S. economic growth has in fact flat lined.
Following the drastically revised-away surge in spending in January, and the savings rate surge to 2012 highs in Feb, March's income and spending data released today showed more problems for The Fed. While income grew 0.4% MoM (more than the 0.3% expectations), spending disappointed with a mere 0.1% rise (against +0.2% MoM expectations). Year-over-year spending growth slowed to 3.5% - the weakest since December and income growth slowed to 4.0% YoY leaving the savings rate at its highest since January 2013.
Income up, Spending down: